March Simple Scrapper Blog Hop + Giveaway

Welcome! Today I’m sharing layouts I created with this month’s Simple Scrapper Premium Membership templates, as well as this month’s Story Starters.

This month I was drawn towards memories from sunny vacations! (In other words, I was not scrapping “with” the seasons as I usually do!)

I scrapped a Disney World trip from summer 2004. I have really been enjoying the combination of orange and blue of late.

Manis-Disney

I scrapped a day at the beach here in the Pacific Northwest from a few years ago. And again, used some blue and orange!

manis-mar13-single1

Finally, for this month’s Story Starters, I created a layout about a boat trip we made during a vacation to Guatemala a few years ago. It was quite the adventure getting into a small boat to head out across Lake Peten Itza for Flores, a city on an island.

manis-march13-ss-dec12-single1-2

Check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of the Simple Scrapper Design Team:
Simple Scrapper (Jennifer Wilson)
Jeryn Carlisi
Lisa Corbin-Polak
Ronnie Crowley
Kim Gehring
Michele Holcomb
Margrethe Aas Johnsen
Amy Kingsford
Samantha Landay
Pam Lozano
Aimee Maddern
Jean Manis
Van Nguyen
Melissa Priest
Celeste Smith
Sara Case Strickland

Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter a giveaway for a one-month trial membership at Simple Scrapper. There are three ways to enter and three winners will be selected. To be eligible, you must enter by 11:59pm CST on Wednesday, March 6. a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping. Each month members receive a new collection of sketch templates and Story Starters, story-focused prompts for pages and projects.

Revisiting an Old Friend

One of my goals this year is to try to not make everything complicated. I have a tendency to overthink/overanalyze. To that end, I have been making more cards with the same mindset one would apply to practicing the piano. In other words, every card I make doesn’t have to be the next best thing. Sometimes you just need to practice a piece of music over and over. 🙂

So today, I’m revisiting a card I made in July during the “Stretch Your Stamps” Online Card class. (A fabulous class by the way!)

Here’s the original card.

Stretch Your Stamps

And here’s my remake, inspired by the fact that it’s a sunny day in the PNW and spring is around the corner!

Bird and Hexagon

The Die-Namics die has two sizes of hexagons. I used the larger one as a mat for the patterned paper as I thought that helped add some definition to the paper against the kraft background.

Supplies: Echo Park “Everyday Eclectic” paper; other “Echo Park” collection paper; Twinery twine; Copics: Y21, BG11, BG53 RV25, RV29, YG13

Stamping with Paint

I’m continuing to work my way back through cards shown in the Online Card Classes courses. Today, I’m sharing a card I created based on one of Jennifer McGuire’s cards from the Online Card Classes Inspiration Showcase course in which the large background stamp is “inked” with paint.

ButterflyGrasses

 

The card background is the same “Silhouette Grasses” stamp stamped with Versamark and clear embossed. Stamping with paint is easy, and I really enjoy the results! The butterflies were die cut from white cardstock inked with soft stone shadow ink.

Home in the PNW

I was fascinated by Jana Millen’s “tree and cat in the snow” card in this post the moment I saw it. As I have a Golden Retriever, (and don’t have at cat), I decided to make a similar card with the Labrador die. And since it feels as if spring is just around the corner here in the Pacific Northwest, I created my card to reflect the spring season. You’ll notice the sky still looks as if there’s a chance of rain – well, that’s the PNW for you!

The background was stamped twice – first with the soft pool shadow ink and then with the soft granite. I shifted the stamp just a titch between the two stampings. I added distress ink to all of the die cuts just to soften them a bit. This is a big card – almost 6 1/2″ tall and 4 3/4″ wide in order to accommodate that magnificent tree! 

PNWDog

Pinspired Challenge #4

It’s time for another Pinspired Challenge. The inspirational photo is for you to interpret anyway you want. You can take from the colors, the style, the theme – it’s up to you!

This challenge is sponsored by Sweet Stamp Shop who are offering a $10 gift certificate to their online store.

For my card, I sought to capture the wood grain/planks, the colors and the stacked type sentiment contained in the inspiration image.

Challenge4-JM

Head on over to the Pinspired Challenges blog to see the creations from the rest of the “Pin Heads” and find out the details for playing along. Three runner ups will be chosen and win a “Pin Pal” badge for their blog. A winner, who will also be chosen by the “Pin Heads,” will win a “Pin Perfect” badge for their blog along with the prize from Sweet Stamp Shop. We can’t wait to see your creations!

Supplies: My Mind’s Eye button; Sizzix flower die; corrugated kraft